Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-s22k5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-22T20:52:21.896Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Scott of the Antarctic, the missing relic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2025

John Charles Burns Open the ORCID record for John Charles Burns [Opens in a new window]
John Charles Burns*
Affiliation:
Independent Scholar, UK
*
Corresponding author: John Charles Burns; Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The deaths in the Antarctic of Captains Robert Falcon Scott and Lawrence “Titus” Oates are the most examined in almost all exploration. However, one object, until today unknown, gives a clue to the real story of the last three days of the Terra Nova expedition leaders. This is the sextant that Captain Scott had with him throughout his career until his death, passed from Kathleen Scott to Peter Scott and thence to its current owner. The sextant, its history and the meaning of the relic are set out before the public for the first time.

Keywords

Terra NovaAntarcticCaptain OatesCaptain Scott
Type
Commentary
Information
Polar Record , Volume 61 , 2025 , e5
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Admiralty Records (1910). Captains’ letters (R.F. Scott) (1910) File 1/8135, Records of the Admiralty, National Archives.Google Scholar
Alp, B. (2024). Captain Scott rewrote his story: January–June 1911. Polar Record, 58(e2), 1–18.Google Scholar
Atkinson, E. L. (1913). SPRI Correspondence (21st June 1913), Atkinson to Scott, MS 1453/46/7. The flag did indeed reappear, since it was sold firstly at Christie’s 17th September 1999 (The Scott Relics), lot 202 and again on 22nd September 2010, Lot 175. The original provenance of the flag was unknown in 1999 but accepted to be the one in photographs.Google Scholar
Atkinson, E. L. (1914). Correspondence (9th January 1914), Atkinson to Scott, MS 1453/153/3 Kathleen Scott collection.Google Scholar
Barczewski, S. (2007). Antarctic Destinies: Scott, Shackleton, and the Changing Face of Heroism. London: Hambledon Continuum.Google Scholar
Barford, M. (2017). D.176: Sextants, numbers, and the Hydrographic Office of the Admiralty. History of Science, 55(4), 431–456.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berry, J. (1990). letter to Elspeth Huxley, 24/09/1990.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bratby, M. (1990). Cambridge University Library, MSS, ref. NCUACS 87.8.99, A108.Google Scholar
Cambridge University Library MSS. (A108). Cambridge University Library, MSS, ref. NCUACS 87.8.99, File A108.“He was an exasperating house guest. He would sleep till all hours, upsetting the entire routine of the house. But he was gay and good looking and he danced beautifully.”Google Scholar
Campbell, T. (2007). Arran: A History. Edinburgh: Birlinn.Google Scholar
Cherry-Garrard, A. (1922). The Worst Journey in the World, Antarctic, 1910–1913. London: Constable and Company Ltd.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Codling, R. (2011). Player’s Antarctic cigarette cards and the involvement of ‘Teddy’ Evans. Polar Record, 47(2), 177–181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crace, J. J. (2008). Out in the Cold. London: The Guardian.Google Scholar
Crane, D. (2005). Scott of the Antarctic. London: Harper Perennial.Google Scholar
Davies, R.B. (1967). Sailor in the Air; The Memoirs of the World’s First Carrier Pilot. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing.Google Scholar
Debenham, F. (1923). British Antarctic Expedition 1910–1913. London: Harrison.Google Scholar
Derbyshire, T. (2021). Antique Trade Gazette 2485, 27 March 2021. Collection sold at auction, Cotswold Auction Company 9 February 2021.Google Scholar
Dunn, R. (2010). National Maritime Museum Greenwich Objects, Interpretations and Narratives: A Single-Object Case Study, Royal Observatory Greenwich presentation.Google Scholar
Fiennes, R. (2003). Captain Scott. London: Hodder & Stoughton.Google Scholar
Griffiths, T. (1998). Latitude. AQ: Australian Quarterly, 70(6), 22.Google Scholar
Higgitt, R. (2017). Challenging Tropes: Genius, Heroic Invention, and the Longitude Problem in the Museum. Isis, 108(2), 371–380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinks, A. R. (1944). The Geographical Journal, 103(4), 162.Google Scholar
HJs Instrumenten Catalogue (2010). A maritime instrument virtual museum online, Troughton and Simms serial number 2552, https://prestashop.hydrografie.synology.me/quintant/363-troughton-and-simms-double-frame-pillar-quintant.html.Google Scholar
Howard, J. (1941). Letter to Peter Scott, Cambridge University Library, MSS, ref. NCUACS 87.8.99, File A165.Google Scholar
Huntford, R. (1979). Scott and Amundsen. London: Hodder and Stoughton.Google Scholar
Huxley, E. (1977). Scott of the Antarctic. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.Google Scholar
Huxley, E. (1993). Peter Scott: Painter and Naturalist. London: Faber and Faber.Google Scholar
Lyne, R. T. (1943). Cambridge University Library, MSS, ref. NCUACS 87.8.99, File B38. Robert T Lyne MInstBE, ARSM is the letter writer.Google Scholar
Macintyre, B. (2013). Sorry, Scott Fans: Noble Death is so Last Century. London: The Times.Google Scholar
May, K., & Lewis, G. (2014). ‘A kind of suicide’? Errors and misconceptions in Roland Huntford’s account of the last days of Scott’s polar party. Polar Record, 50(2), 156–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
May, K., & Lewis, G. (2015). Scott and Shackleton in the media: a response to Ben Macintyre. Polar Record, 51(4), 386–391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
May, K. (2012). Scott of the Antarctic: we shall die like gentlemen. Sue Blackhall 2012. Barnsley: Pen & Sword discovery. Polar Record, 48(4), E13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
May, K. (2013). Could Captain Scott have been saved? Revisiting Scott’s last expedition. Polar Record, 49(1), 72–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murray, K. (2017). Memorials of Endurance and Adventure: Exhibiting British Polar Exploration, 1819 – c.1939 (Doctoral dissertation). St Andrews: University of St. Andrews.Google Scholar
Nature (1930). The British polar exhibition. Nature, 126, 80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogers, C. (1877). Genealogical Memoirs of the Family of Robert Burns and the Scottish House of Burnes. London: Royal Historical Society.Google Scholar
Scott, K. (1912). Royal Geographical Society Library RFS/4(d).Google Scholar
Scott, P. M. (1941a). Cambridge University Library, MSS, ref. NCUACS 87.8.99, File A242.Google Scholar
Scott, P. M. (1946). The Battle of the Narrow Seas: A History of the Light Coastal Forces in the Channel and North Sea, 1939–1945. London: Country Life.Google Scholar
Scott, P. M. (1941b). Cambridge University Library, MSS, ref. NCUACS 87.8.99, File B8.Google Scholar
Scott, P. M. (1944b). Cambridge University Library, MSS, ref. NCUACS 87.8.99, File A163.Google Scholar
Scott, P. M. (1944). Cambridge University Library, MSS, ref. NCUACS 87.8.99, File B39 and B92.Google Scholar
Scurfield, B. (1941). Cambridge University Library, MSS, ref. NCUACS 87.8.99, File B6 letter to his CO July 1941.Google Scholar
Scurfield, B. (1942). Cambridge University Library, MSS, ref. NCUACS 87.8.99, File B5.Google Scholar
Sear, R. (1969). Daily Mirror (London) 12th February 1969 quotes Scott: “Steadily, I am getting less resistant to my inferiority complex. When I was making my way, I was aggressive. I had to keep on trying very hard. I don’t try as hard now.”Google Scholar
Simon-Ekeland, A. (2024). How Jean-Baptiste Charcot came to embrace fear but not anger. Emotions of polar exploration and their communication to the public in the 1900s. Polar Record, 60(e3), 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tosh, J. (2005). Review of the last great quest: captain scott’s antarctic sacrifice, by M. Jones. The Historical Journal, 48(3), 848–849.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turbett, C. (2023). Witness to War: Arran & the Firth of Clyde in the Second World War, Ayrshire Archaeological and Natural History Society: Ayrshire Monographs 53, p98 (Dances at Lamlash Hall, pp. 101–2).Google Scholar
Young, L. (1995). A Great Task of Happiness. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar